Skyline Festival, Mine's, Nismo and Nissan in One Day! (Part 2)

So as I mentioned in Part 1, after checking out some cars at the Skyline Festival, we decided to drive to the tuner which blessed my car with a handbuilt RB26DETT, Mine's.  

Not surprisingly, upon arrival we found a customer's white R33 GTR in the parking lot:

Note interesting vented front bumper!

Very clean

Speaking of clean I was parked next to a very clean 34...

I didn't like those wheels too much though...too much hassle to keep clean

This photo got me thinking... do I need to darken the red lens of my diffuser LED?

Obviously for Kunal, this was tuner heaven, and they were even kind enough to show him around (the garage, the engine assembly room, etc.) while Thomas and I asked a bunch of technical questions as well as inquiring into some future products... lol. (something to look forward to on this blog!)

Kunal with Nakayama-san, Chief Mechanic
(and yes the Takumi who built the engine in my car!) at Mine's.
The man has built over 1000 RB26 engines during his career...!!!

 The boys memorialized their visit with this photo:

Thomas trying to act cool, Kunal WAS cool...

And then we were off to our next stop...

The new NISMO Omori Factory, no longer in Omori Tokyo but in Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama (access map here). Inside, we saw there were several cars displayed, including the original Z-Tune, but also noticed actual cars being worked on behind the glass:

Like this Clubman Sports BNR34

There was also a 400R, but it was slightly out of camera range, darn (and we were not allowed inside).

Of course there was the gift/parts/accessories store selling all sorts of interesting goodies:

Not enough time, not enough money...

But I really enjoyed the nice touches on stuff like:

A NISMO vending machine!

Camshafts being used as door handles to the bathrooms!

And more camshafts in the bathroom!

As we were leaving, we took one more photo outside... I didn't want to do this but the guys insisted, so:

Backing the car in as if it's being driven off the showroom floor!

It was getting late, so then we headed over to nearby Nissan Global HQ in Yokohama to check out what cars were on display as well as do some more shopping at the Nissan Gallery Boutique store.

Kunal found a cool T-shirt...

Nice clock, but why the black caliper? Need gold!

And of course, the $5000 carbon fiber GT-R suitcase...

And check out what we found on the Nissan Gallery floor:

Trunk of an R35 GT-R. And herein lies a clue to a future mod for my car...

We then headed to a nearby restaurant to discuss all things cars while eating all sorts of Japanese food, a good way to finish a LONG, but good day! Thanks to Kunal for understanding my obsession to keep my car clean and parked securely (and for patiently tagging along with me lol), as well as for letting me share some of COE's pictures on this blog!